“THE DE JONG HEIR”: Tottenham Teen is seen as the next Frenkie de Jong and is reported to have similar “brutal ability.”

Tottenham Hotspur have beaten Barcelona to the signing of Lucas Bergvall with the Premier League-bound Swedish wonderkid likened to both Frenkie de Jong and Pedri. 

Before sealing his £8.5 million move to North London at the start of February – Lucas Bergvall will arrive in the summer when the current Allsvenskan campaign comes to an end – Barcelona president Joan Laporta made no attempt to hide the fact that the teenager also had admirers at the Camp Nou.

You can usually tell a lot about a player’s potential by the nature of the club’s interested in him.

And, in the space of just a few months, Tottenham Hotspur have fought off competition from some of Europe’s A-list clubs for not only Bergvall but also Luka Vuskovic, Ashley Phillips, Radu Dragusin, Guglielmo Vicario and Destiny Udogie, Ange Postecoglou’s side building up quite the collection of rising stars.

Tottenham Hotspur beat Barcelona to Lucas Bergvall

“Lucas is a dynamic player. Technically very gifted, and who stands out with his final ball,” Kevin Perez, the CEO of the Futbol Gran Canaria training camp, tells Marca after watching 18-year-old Bergvall up close on Spanish soil.

“He is a very mature and humble boy. I guess the experiences he has had have helped him.

“He had been traveling between Barcelona and London to negotiate his future. They even gave him a private jet!”

Capped twice by Sweden already, Bergvall is a footballer who appears tailor-made for ‘Ange-ball’. Postecoglou loves midfielders capable of finding pockets of space in the final third, linking midfield to attack with clever, intuitive passes and wily, ethereal movement, a la Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley north of the border at Celtic.

Perez is not surprised to hear about Barcelona’s interest, given that Bergvall shares a lot in common with two genuinely elite-level playmakers already earning a living at the Camp Nou.

‘Great resemblance to Frenkie de Jong’

“Quality is his greatest weapon. He has a brutal ability to control and play. In addition, he moves with an elegance inappropriate for his age, which is what has caused teams like Barcelona to become interested in him,” Perez adds.

“He likes to play between the lines. To participate in the creation of the game and be in constant contact with the ball. He moves very well between the lines and turns well.

“Physically and football-wise, he bears a great resemblance to Frenkie de Jong. Not just because of his blonde hair, but because of the way he drives the ball with his head high and his elegant stride.

“Tactically, I would say that he has similar to Pedri. He understands the game well, enjoys playing between the lines, and knows at all times where his team-mates are.”

Johan Lange, Tottenham’s technical director, believes that Bergvall – when he arrives in time for pre-season – will be part of Postecoglou’s first-team plans next term.

 

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